In a time of trouble, “eBay saved my life,” says Rawlins Gilliland of Dallas, in a commentary aired on NPR affiliate KERA-FM in north Texas. Mired in debt, “I paid off six-figure medical bills and tax liens selling primarily vintage clothing found in thrift stores or garage sales.”

This morning, VP of Seller Experience Todd Lutwak announced that Third-Party Checkout (3PXO) will no longer be supported worldwide on eBay sites after June 30, 2011. While third parties will still be able to provide valuable pre and post transaction services, we are looking for a more consistent checkout to eliminate buyer confusion.

A week removed from eBay: On Location – Dallas and registration just opened this morning for the Chicago event in July. For those of you who follow Ink regularly, you know that I focused on interviewing sponsors/vendors when I attended eBay: On Location – Atlanta. (Check out my video interviews with Endicia, ProStores and eBay…

Spending time with Lisa’s Luxe here at eBay: On Location Dallas. Lisa has been selling on eBay for a little over 2 years now and full-time for 6 months after working for 7 years at Neiman Marcus. Until today, she had 100% positive feedback however, as she was leaving to join us here at eBayOL,…

All, As we get closer to the second eBay: On Location event – this weekend in Dallas – I wanted to share some behind the scenes conversations I had at the previous event in Atlanta. I spent a few minutes with Mitch Gross, head of product strategy/marketing for eBay AdCommerce. I also had him fill-out…

I’m sitting here in the main hall with Louise Sanchez from Colorado Springs. You can follow her on Twitter @hersbcraftsgift and check out her blog at http://herbscraftsgifts.blogspot.com/. She has almost 4,000 feedback on eBay with 500 listings up right now.

An update to the eBay Announcement Board went up yesterday afternoon that I wanted to share with folks:

Improvements to the process when you open an unpaid item claim manually

* If a buyer doesn’t pay and you cancel the transaction, the buyer will no longer be able to pay for the item.
* If you open an unpaid item case, it will be closed automatically when the buyer pays using a safe electronic payment method such as PayPal or Moneybookers.

Shopping Cart and eCommerce News | Will New USPS Plan Affect Your Ecommerce Business? http://ow.ly/1pIp5u

All, I’m still answering specific questions through email and comments here on Ink but in the meantime, I wanted to share a little sneak peak into what is happening behind the scenes. In addition to our usual Customer Service call center and PR efforts around news like this, we have also established two dedicated Communications…

The following video was recorded earlier today at eBay’s Customer Service HQ in Salt Lake City, Utah. Andrew Chase (aka @ebay_andy) has joined me on past podcasts to help answer seller questions around previous announcements we’ve made in the marketplace. I find him an extremely knowledgeable and unsung hero for our community – similar to…